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Elections critic decides not to pursue his latest complaint about Boulder County's clerk

Times-Call staff

Posted:
11/03/2012 05:59:23 PM MDT

Updated:
11/03/2012 06:32:26 PM MDT

Shnelvar

Boulder County Libertarian Party chairman Ralph Shnelvar said Saturday that he's decided against filing a formal complaint or lawsuit against Boulder County Clerk Hillary Hall's refusal to have county election judges loudly call out the names of voters casting ballots at county polling places.

Shnelvar had contended, in a Friday email to deputy Boulder County attorney David Hughes, that Hall has been violating state law by not having election judges "clearly and audibly announce the name" of each voter who's filled out a ballot, "in a loud and distinct tone of voice."

Hughes said Friday that the law is inconsistent, in that the Legislature eliminated a similar requirement for announcing the names of people voting on voting machines. He said Boulder County is consistent with the practice elsewhere in the state, since the Colorado Secretary of State's office told this county's officials that a majority of the state's county clerks don't have their election judges call out the names of voters filling out paper ballots or using voting machines.

Shnelvar wrote the Times-Call in a Saturday e-mail to the that he's concluded that "the law is a mess." He said any lawsuit that attempted to force Hall to have election judges call out polling-place voters' names "would, in my opinion, fail."

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